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CHAPEL HILL – The red zone offense for North Carolina is hot, currently ranked 15th in the nation with a 94.7 percent success rate.

UNC has scored on 18 of its 19 trips into the red zone, with 17 ending as touchdowns. Keep in mind, the one failure to score was when Carolina took a knee at the end of its win over Florida A&M in the opener, and the lone field goal came two snaps after quarterback Drake Maye had the wind knocked out of him and had to leave the game for a play. In his absence, backup Jacolby Criswell misfired on a pass into the end zone on third down, forcing a Tar Heels’ field goal attempt that Noah Burnette converted.

So, with Maye behind center completing drives into the red zone, UNC is 17-for-17 scoring touchdowns. Hence, the Heels are scorching hot when they get neat the goal line.

“We have put so much emphasis on it…,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said earlier this week, referring to the offseason and into this fall. “Let’s don’t talk about scoring touchdowns, let’s work on scoring touchdowns.”

It was a point of emphasis because the Tar Heels weren’t nearly as effective or efficient a year ago inside opponents’ 20-yard-line.

UNC, which finished last season 6-7, scored touchdowns just 57.2 percent of the time in the red zone last season, and that was with Sam Howell at quarterback and thousand-yard rusher Ty Chandler in the backfield.

Through the first five games last season, Carolina had 17 redzone appearances scoring 12 touchdowns with one interception and three-for-four on field goal attempts. The major difference on the field this season is Maye’s skillset and level of play.

He is known to get the ball out quickly and spread it around. In the red zone thus far, Maye is 17-for-23 passing with 130 yards and 10 touchdowns, and running the ball, he has nine attempts for 34 yards and three scores. Remarkably, Maye has thrown a touchdown pass to seven different players in the redzone.

Through the first five games last year, Howell completed 9 of 16 passes for six touchdowns with one interception and rushed 6 times for 13 yards.

Brown attributes some of the success to the evolution of the tight end room.

“I do think we’re doing much better in the red zone with touchdowns because of our tight ends. That’s made a huge difference,” he said. “We’re running the ball more down there, we’ve got more play-action to tight ends just like the opening fourth-down play to Kamari (Morales) on the first drive.”

The trio of tight ends (Morales, Bryson Nesbit, John Copenhaver) have already surpassed last season’s number of catches by the room, and nearly matched the yards.

In addition, the Josh Downs factor remains vital. He continues to find open holes. Maye has targeted Downs eight times, the most of any Tar Heel in the red zone, with Downs grabbing seven of those passes for 39 yards and three touchdowns. Nesbit is Maye’s second favorite target in the redzone with four targets.

Even though UNC (4-1, 1-0 ACC) has struggled with consistency running the ball, seven of the touchdowns in the redzone have come on the ground. But offensive coordinator Phil Longo credited the offensive line earlier in the week with the array of scores the Heels have executed. He said lines can’t hide the closer they get to the goal line.

“As an o-line, we take a lot of pride in that,” senior guard Ed Montilus said Tuesday. “It’s really hard to get to the red zone, especially when you’re on the other side of the field and have to make longs drives like that. When you get down there, you have to do things right and not mess up.”

The Heels haven’t been messing up in the red zone at all. Sixty-two teams have been in the redzone 19 or more times, but just 16 have more than 17 touchdowns, and of those teams, only Ohio State has a better redzone/TD ratio than UNC. The Buckeyes have been in it 25 times with 23 touchdowns, which is 92 percent.

So, the Heels and the redzone have been a good match thus far. Red hot, in fact.